Sunday, 12 July 2009

Indietracks interview #19: Ray Rumours and the No-eyed Deers

Ray Rumours is Ros, the bassist from Electrelane, who has released two albums on Stitch-Stitch Records. The most recent was this year's 'Le Pont Suspendu', which was recorded in one week at a friend's house in St Martin d'Ardeche. The album takes its name from the suspension bridge that spans the Ardeche river, and was recorded in the winter of 2007 and spring of 2008, using only acoustic instruments, including a grand piano and a cardboard drum kit. It covers themes of loss: half-forgotten friends, disappearing memories, missed chances and bitter rejections.

Personalities from the recordings surround the songs: an underwater trumpeter, laughing backing singers, footsteps clattering down the stairs and the shredding of a newspaper mid-song. Ros has joined us for a quick interview on the blog.

Hi Ros, what music are you enjoying at the moment?The Light Sleepers, Francois and the Atlas Mountains, Marine Girls, Heavenly, The Madrigals, Bambino.

Tell us about an unusual place you've played a gig in the pastI once played in a slaughterhouse in Madrid. It had been turned into some sort of art place but it still felt strange and wrong.

Do any band members have any particular skills, hobbies or claims to fame you wish to share?Gill who plays drums wrote 'the Axis of Evil cookbook'.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Indietracks festival, and why?Camera Obscura, because I've never seen them before and I'm excited about seeing them with Francois (of my favourite band Francois and the Atlas Mountains) playing.

Indietracks is an annual indiepop festival that takes place at a 1950s steam railway in Derbyshire, UK every July.

The festival has been running since 2007. Bands playing in previous years have included Camera Obscura, Edwyn Collins, Teenage Fanclub, Veronica Falls, The Wedding Present, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Pastels, Allo Darlin', White Town, The Hidden Cameras, Art Brut, Still Corners, The Vaselines, Summer Camp, Emmy The Great, The Primitives, Bis, Slow Club, Jeffrey Lewis, Helen Love, Au Revoir Simone and hundreds more artists from across the globe.